Solar panels (Courtesy).

The Ministry of Energy and Dam is set to embark on a project to install 5 megawatts of solar power in Juba after its agreement with a contractor was approved by the national council of ministers.

The project is estimated to cost more than 150 US dollars and will provide Juba City with reliable, continuous and affordable energy.

Deputy Information Minister Jacob Maiju Korok said the energy minister Peter Marcello has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ATP Company Limited.

The project maturity period is 20 years and additional five years as a grace period.

“On the construction of 5 megawatts hydro solar power plant in Juba City, the Minister of Energy and Dam presented a MoU between the ministry and Dam and Company ATP limited,” Korok told reporters.

“The purpose of the project is to support provision of a reliable, continuous and affordable energy in Juba city.”

“The estimate cost of this project is 150,190,216 and maturity period is 20 years and 5 grace period. It is actually on consensual loan and this project is deliberated and passed enormously.”

A report published by the Business Insider Africa shows that only 7% of the estimated 12 million people in South Sudan can access electricity.

Many businesses and households in South Sudan depend on diesel-powered generators to operate, and the main electricity supplier – Juba Electricity Distribution Company (JEDCO) – hardly covers all residential areas of the capital.

The government is scrambling between options of importing hydroelectricity from the region and building damns in a bid to find solutions to its energy problems.

In September 2023, South Sudan activated an agreement with Russia for the construction of a hydropower plant in the country.

The cooperation agreement reportedly signed in 2018, was revisited in a meeting in Moscow, a day after President Kiir met his counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

It came on the heels of uncertainties over the position of downstream countries like Egypt and Sudan, who have conflicted with Ethiopia over a newly built mega-dam.

South Sudan also signed an agreement in 2022 with Ethiopia to import 100 megawatts of hydroelectricity power for three years. The deal is yet to be implemented.